AGIS II OF SPARTA AT HERAEA IN 400 B.C.1

摘要

Three ancient writers say that King Agis II of Sparta went to Heraea in westernnArcadia and died there, or fell ill there and was taken to Sparta, where he died. Theyndo not however say why he went to Heraea, but it is possible to form a reasonablenconjecture.nAt Hellenica 3.2.31 Xenophon ends his account of the war between Sparta andnElis that followed the Peloponnesian War, and immediately afterwards (3.3.1) reportsnthat King Agis II of Sparta went to Delphi to dedicate ‘the tithe’ (clearly a tithe of thenbooty from the war2), and then on the way home fell ill at Heraea, being an old man,nand was taken from there to Sparta, still alive, but soon died at Sparta. Xenophonndoes not explain why Agis went to Heraea, nor mention anything that he did there,napart from falling ill. Agis’ death was followed by the well-known dispute betweennLeotychidas and Agesilaus for the right to succeed him.3When referring to Agesilaus’nsuccession in his Agesilaus Xenophon makes no mention of the circumstances ofnAgis’ death, saying simply ‘after the death of Agis’ (1.5).nPlutarch, in his Life of Lysander, gives an account of the dispute between Leotychidasnand Agesilaus introduced with the phrase ‘When King Agis died’ (22.3–6).nPlutarch says that Agis refused to recognize Leotychidas as his son right to the end ofnhis life: ‘but when he [Agis] was ill and was carried to Heraea and was about to die, hengave way to the appeals of the young man himself and of his friends and declared innfront of many people that Leotychidas was his son. He then asked those present tontestify to this, and died. They bore witness to this for Leotychidas.’ Plutarch’s accountnclearly implies that Agis died at Heraea.4 It does not however mention why Agis wasnaway from Sparta, nor why he was carried to Heraea rather than elsewhere.nIn his survey of Spartan history at the beginning of his book on Laconia Pausaniasngives an account of the Spartan–Elean war (3.8.3–5), mentions other exploits ofnAgis (3.8.6–7), and then goes on to say (3.8.7) that Agis said before the ephors thatnLeotychidas was not his son but later repented: at the time he was being carried fromnArcadia because he was ill, and, when he reached Heraea, he called the people (n) to witness that he thought that Leotychidas was his son, and charged them,nwith pleas and tears, to report this to the Spartans. Pausanias then (3.8.8) says that,nafter the death of Agis, the dispute over the succession developed between Agesilausnand Leotychidas, and ‘the Arcadians from Heraea came and bore witness for